Water pollution continues to be a global problem affecting world population. Water pollution may be the result of industry, mining, hydraulic fracturing, energy production and agriculture, amongst many other operations. The contaminants found in water polluted through these and other operations vary widely, including for example, metals, heavy metals, organic chemicals, inorganic compounds, biocides, and microorganisms.
There are countless devices, systems, companies and technologies that attempt to address water pollution through known purification technologies, including, distillation, ion exchange, carbon absorption filtration, ultra filtration, reverse osmosis, electro-deionization, treatment with various chemicals (e.g. ozone, chlorine), ultraviolet light, X-ray and Gamma-ray radiation, cavitation, and combination thereof. While each of these technologies can be capable of removing individual or several pollutants, no single method or combination of these methods can address numerous contaminants simultaneously. Furthermore, many methods are associated with some degree of environmental cost. For example, some methods separate off contaminants without destroying them, and some methods produce noxious by-products. Purification methods that only separate out pollutants, or create unsafe by-products in the process, only delay or offset the pollution problem rather than solving it.
Extraction and purification of metallic elements and metal compounds from ore, sand and deposits, continues to be energy and cost intensive. For example, separation of valuable elemental metals and compounds from ore can be so expensive to not be worth engaging in the mining operation at all. Particularly expensive and environmentally damaging is the electrolytic and/or thermal extraction and purification of gold (Au) from mineral ore, the purification of silicon (Si) from silicon dioxide (SiO2) and the separation of rare earth elements. Furthermore, purification processes used for water purification are not likely to be adaptable for the purification of metallic elements and metal-containing compounds from mineral ore, sand or deposits.
Therefore, in spite of the existence of these divergent processes for water remediation and mineral purification, the need exists for a single method and system usable to purify a broad range of feedstock, including water, fluid, elemental metals and metallic compounds.